Perfect White Cupcake: Recipe for Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes
Last week I was all about finding the Perfect White Cupcakes for a certain someone’s fourth birthday party that we had this past Saturday.
It was a week long adventure for sure!
There were several batches baked and tweaked, frustrated phone calls to Jamie from My Baking Addiction, and more tweaks.
It turns out I had a high altitude dilemma on my hands.
I don’t bake cupcakes a lot and depending on the recipe, I often get lucky, but this time around it did not work out so well.
Circus Tent Cupcake Decorating Tips
We had an adorable Circus/Carnival themed birthday party for Madeline (more details to follow later this week) and I knew that I wanted a moist, Vanilla Cupcake recipe for the party so I could do two-toned frosting in the party colors on top so they would somewhat resemble a Circus tent.
I used a combination of red, yellow, and turquoise striped cupcake wrappers and frosted each with a coordinating color combo: white and red swirls, yellow and white swirls, and turquoise and white swirls.
Decorating Tools Used:
- Wilton 1M Tip – I purchased 3 tips so I could have 1 for each color combo.
- Disposable Pastry Bags
- Ateco 12-Color Food Coloring Kit
- Striped Cupcake Liners
The final cupcake recipe turned out delicious! Everyone, including perfectionist me, loved them. It was well worth the effort.
I love the slight tang that the sour cream offers the cupcakes and how incredibly moist they are.
These Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes will definitely be my new go-to Perfect White Cupcake Recipe.
Please Note:
I have not personally tested this recipe at sea level.
I live at around 5,300 feet elevation and made tweaks to the original recipe, which you can find credited in the recipe’s print box.
More Yummy Cupcakes
- Nutella Cupcakes with Triple Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes
- Lemon Coconut Cupcakes and Lemon Buttercream
- Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake
- Solar System Chocolate Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream

Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes
I love the slight tang that the sour cream offers the cupcakes and how incredibly moist they are. These Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes will definitely be my new go-to Perfect White Cupcake Recipe.
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes:
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
- seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract (to maintain the bright white color)
- 1 ½ pounds (24 ounces) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 4-6 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
Instructions
For the Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the racks in the center position. Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the milk, sour cream, and egg whites. Set aside.
- Fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or use a hand mixer (I got a better dome with the hand mixer). Add the butter, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes, or until light. Scrape the sides as necessary.
- Add the vanilla extract and one third of the flour mixture while beating on medium speed, again scraping the sides as needed. Beat in half of the sour cream mixture. Alternately add the remaining flour mixture and sour cream until all the wet and dry ingredients have added, beating until the batter fully incorporated and smooth.
- Use a large scoop (about 3 tablespoons), evenly divide the batter between 18 lined muffin tins filling each about 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake for 15-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers come out clean. Cool on wire rack.
For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the butter and vanilla bean seeds. Beat until fluffy. Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the confectioners' sugar while continuing to beat.
- Once well blended, add in the vanilla and 4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk. Mix on low speed until well combined and moist. If desired, an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until your desired consistency is reached. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
- Pipe or decorate as desired. See Two Tone Frosting for Cupcakes and Cupcake Piping Tricks for piping tips.
Notes
cupcakes heavily adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
Vanilla Buttercream via Jamie
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Nutrition Information
Yield 18 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 318 Total Fat 21g Saturated Fat 13g Trans Fat 0g Unsaturated Fat 7g Cholesterol 57mg Sodium 157mg Carbohydrates 30g Net Carbohydrates 0g Fiber 0g Sugar 16g Sugar Alcohols 0g Protein 4g
Awesome recipe! Beautiful domes and just right on the texture! I have tried a lot of high altitude cake and cupcake recipes and this one is a winner! I substituted some Oregon Chai Concentrate for the milk and added 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp chai spice and topped with vanilla bean frosting with the same spices and amounts used in the cupcakes…tasted just like a chai spice latte! Yum! I am at 4100′ and it was a beautiful little cupcake. Thank you for sharing!
Sounds wonderful! I’m so glad it was a winner for you. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by to let me know!
I’ve been going crazy trying to find a good cupcake recipe for the last week. After 3 failed attempts, these are it! Thank you, thank you!!
So glad it was a winner! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Thank you for posting! I made these at the 3,500’ level and finally made a good cupcake! I’ve been having trouble with crumbling and dry cupcakes. I’m going to write it on a recipe card now!
Glad I could help!
I don’t usually leave comments but I HAVE to for this recipe! I’ve been looking for a white cupcake recipe that uses sour cream for my cherry pie cupcake creation and this was PERFECT! I just omitted the vanilla bean and added an extra egg white and followed the rest to a T. This was by far the best cupcake I have ever eaten! I filled mine with cherry pie filling and made a cherry and graham cracker cream cheese frosting I’ve been in heaven ever since. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
I used this recipe to make a small cake and cupcakes for my son’s 1st birthday. I live in Denver, CO and was having trouble finding a recipe that didn’t turn out dry in the high altitude. These turned out perfect!! So yummy and super moist! I added a raspberry filling to some and they were delicious. This will be my new go-to recipe for vanilla cake/cupcakes. Thank you!!!
I was on the hunt for the perfect vanilla cupcake for my daughter’s first birthday party…I don’t need to look any further, for this is it!!! I made these cupcakes tonight…delish…they were light, delicate and moist. I baked them for 14-15 minutes and they were perfect. This will be the cupcake recipe I will be using for her party and my “go to” cupcake recipe for now on. Thank you, thank you!
Is this the recipe adjusted for the high altitude….or is this the regular recipe
This is the recipe that works for me living at 1 mile high altitude. I have NOT tested it at sea level. I had to do lots of tweaks to rework it which you can read about here: https://www.goodlifeeats.com/2011/09/high-altitude-baking-tips-for-cupcakes.html
These look so absolutely delicious! I adore cupcakes. I can’t wait to make them! Your daughter’s birthday party looked amazing as well. What a great idea.
I saw photos of the party setup on Instagram and couldn’t wait to see more from it, Katie. I know y’all had a wonderful time!
These cupcakes look amazing! I haven’t made white cupcakes in a while… I think I need to fix that ASAP!
I am honored to say I got to try them at Madeline’s birthday party, they were truly delicious!!
Sounds like you finally came up with the perfect recipe! Thanks for sharing your beautiful cupcakes! Those pictures are amazing. Sour cream is fantastic in baking.
I love to use buttermilk, too. It’s in my grandmother’s coffeecake, recipe, which I dare say is the best I’ve had!
These sound perfect Katie, and of course, loving the two-toned frosting!!
beautiful cupcakes! so glad you were able to find a recipe/make adjustments that worked for altitude. i moved from baking at sea level for years to living at about 5,500 feet and there’s nothing like the realization that your old recipes just don’t work any more. cakes are the hardest!
I love the tang of sour cream in baked goods too. I just love that swirled frosting too, they look perfect. I hope the birthday girl enjoyed the party!
Gorgeous cupcakes! Love the photos, they’re so pretty! 🙂
Beautiful cupcakes and photos!
This recipe is wonderful Katie… and your pictures are just stunning!! I thought I was opening the recipe page of Donna Hay! (only yours are better!)
Great job!
How fun – love the pretty colors! Hope she had a great birthday and loved the pony!
These are absolutely beautiful!! I’ve had a hard time finding a recipe that works every time for cupcakes – I need to give these a try!!
So pretty! I’m sure it was a great birthday 🙂
Your photos are gorgeous! These look delish! Madeline is one lucky little girl 🙂
You mention your initial difficulty was “high altitude dilemma”. I assume you made adjusted to compensate but just what did you do? I tend to only decrease the baking powder, add a half egg shell of extra water, reduce the sugar a little, and up the temperature. See http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/suzi/recipes/above.htm for specifics. Does the table look about right? Thanks for your input.
I did decrease the baking powder. I’m not an expert on high altitude baking so I can’t say anything regarding your table. I had to do a lot of research to tweak the recipe and achieve desired results. I plan on doing a post on what I learned and how I tweaked the recipe to change certain things.
These are beautiful Katie!
I can’t get over how awesome that two-tone frosting is! Have just clicked through to your tutorial and next time I make cupcakes I’m giving this a go. Your daughter is very lucky to have such a wonderful baking mum 🙂
I am a cupcake perfectionist, too. I cannot wait to try these. The pictures are just beautiful!